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PUTRAJAYA: Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has ordered national unity minister Aaron Ago Dagang and religious affairs minister Na’im Mokhtar to meet the interfaith council which criticised plans to place Islamic development department (Jakim) officers in government departments.

Government spokesman Fahmi Fadzil said Anwar ordered the two ministers to meet the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST) soon to hear their views and clear the air on the issue.

“Actually, Jakim answered this issue on Aug 7 following statements made by a human rights activist and lawyer at the time. However, MCCBCHST issued a statement yesterday and this has led to a misunderstanding.

"Therefore, the prime minister has ordered (the two ministers) to explain the matter,"he said at a press conference here.

Fahmi, who is also the communications minister, maintained that these Jakim officers were not involved in policy matters at all.

He added that this policy had existed since 2007 and that there had been no new placement of Jakim officers since then.

"This means that ministries that saw the placement of Jakim officers at the time are the only ministries that have Jakim officers present now,"he said.

"For example, the communications ministry does not have any Jakim officer."

Yesterday, MCCBCHST issued a statement in response to a Daily Express article quoting Sabah’s Liberal Democratic Party vice-president David Ong.

In the article, Ong raised concerns about reports that Jakim officers would be placed in every government department to ensure its decisions align with Islamic principles.

MCCBCHST emphasised its support for Article 3(1) of the Federal Constitution, which stipulates that Islam is the religion of the federation, but argued that Jakim’s role in ensuring government policies align with Islamic principles would fall outside the constitutional scope of the role of Islam as interpreted by the courts.

Earlier today, Na’im had clarified that Jakim officers were not being placed in government departments to influence policy but only to organise Islamic religious programmes.

In its statement on Aug 7, Jakim said the current prime minister did not order Jakim officers to be placed in government departments.

It said the policy was first introduced in the 1980s and it involved a few departments, before it was expanded to all ministries, departments and federal agencies in 2007 to support Putrajaya’s "Islam Hadhari approach".